


The Problems with Social Media

by Once_Upon_A_Ghost_Story



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: M/M, Social Media, based off Tumblr post
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 14:33:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16088057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Once_Upon_A_Ghost_Story/pseuds/Once_Upon_A_Ghost_Story
Summary: Concept: Peter Parker making a Spiderman Instagram account that becomes verified and has over 1m followers and one night at 2 am when he’s making a depressing finsta post he accidentally posts it to SpiderManOfficial(With slight changes, AKA Interwebs.)





	The Problems with Social Media

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Social Media concept](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/419651) by racing-faster. 



> there is suppose to be emojis with some of the comments, but AO3 refuses to post with them so :(
> 
> Wasn't Beta read so might have errors <3

A little over a month ago, Peter had made a second Instagram account, its_me_spiderman, he hadn’t been expecting it to blow up _this_ much, but it meant he got to take more photos so he didn’t mind as much.

It felt surreal when he passed 22 million followers, considering his main account had less than 200, but being a superhero makes you popular.

At least if they don’t know who you are.

If they know who you are, everything’s out in the open and he’s seen just how cruel reporters can be.

That’s why he always made sure he was on the right account (and then checked again out of fear he just saw it wrong) before posting _anything._

Because one small slip up could ruin everything.

He’d made enemies as Spiderman, dangerous and violent enemies that he couldn’t risk finding out who he was, it would put everyone he cared about in danger.

Aunt May, Ned, MJ, Mr. Stark (though he felt confident his mentor could easily defend himself, it didn’t mean he wants to be the reason he has to.)

But it only takes one slip up, one misguided “I’m on the right account”, to shatter everything Peter spent the last two years hiding.

  
  
  


His day started off decent enough, he woke up a few minutes late and he didn’t get to finish breakfast, Aunt May had already left for work, and due to him waking up late, he missed the bus.

Peter walked to school, at a brisk pace, but he was still 20 minutes late to first period. He wasn’t in any rush, Ned wasn’t at school today anyway, he’s been sick for the past few days.

They’d gotten into a fight the day before he got sick, and while Peter understood that Ned’s probably sleeping most of the time, he still misses talking to him. He hadn’t gotten a response to any of his messages over the past three days and he decided to wait until Ned was back in school.

He got detention for being late, something that didn’t help cheer up his already souring mood, and Mr. Stark messaged him during 4th period that he didn’t have to come into the lab later that day, which was the fourth time in the past few weeks.

He knew Mr. Stark wasn’t doing it on purpose, Pepper had been making him go to more board meetings so he flew out of state more.

But it didn’t mean it wasn’t disappointing.

His day didn’t get any better, Aunt May was upset with him because his grades were slipping, which she was worried was due to the internship and him diverting his attention from school.

They ate in silence and then he went into his room.

His hands were shaking.

He messaged Ned, after realizing he was online,

_~ Hey babe_

but after almost 10 minutes he realized he wasn’t going to get a message back.

Peter sighed, leaning back against his headboard as he entered his password to its_me_spiderman, scrolling through his notifications.

There was a lot of comments on his most recent picture of him hanging upside down by a web, flashing a peace sign to the camera.

_@Tyjera ~ omg d a d d y_

_@mikel ~ IConic_

_@ken_werewolf ~ Wow_

_@xmm_tj ~ @spaceman holy fuck_

 

  * __@spaceman ~ whoever he is, raw me. like please__



 

Peter clicked away, while he knew when he started that “fangirls” acted like this (he’d seen in first hand with “Thor fangirls”, not that he blamed them), he still felt uncomfortable.

None of them knew how young he was, he’d seen conversations debating on old they believed he was; most guesses went between 20 and 28.

He sighed, finding himself typing in the familiar @ that takes him to his main account, scrolling through the pictures.

He had gotten distracted, the small part of happiness that he got from looking at pictures of him and his friends, or him and Ned on their first date. (They went to arcade and afterwards they bought a new game, ordered pizza and played it until the sun started coming up the next morning.)

He didn’t realize he had tears streaming down his face until he was covering his mouth with a shaking hand.

The last thing he wanted was to accidentally wake Aunt May because he couldn’t calm down.

In a mild attempt to distract himself from the pending panic attack, he opened up the Snapchat app, flicking through the filters and trying to ignore the tears that were stuck on his chin.

He took a few pictures, none of which did he ever **_plan_ ** on posting or sharing, before he started closing some of the excess apps on his phone, freezing on the messenger.

A small _seen at 9:32_ was underneath his most recent message, that was 12 minutes ago.

A whole new wave of tears washed over him and he closed  the phone, curling against his pillow.

His hands were shaking violently, ears ringing and he cupped his hands over them. He dug his teeth into his lips to try and keep the sobs quiet.

He grabbed his phone again, his fingers shaking as he typed a rushed, dramatic rant about his feelings, tears pooled down his neck.

@its_me_spiderman _God isn’t it so great that my life is falling apart!!!!!! It’s so fun!1!1! my boyfriend is ignoring me for whatever reason and May is stressing me tf out and my goddamn internship is going to actual fucking shit everyone hates me and that’s fine!!!!!! Fuck me I guess !!!! I’m gonna die alone :-)))))))_

He attached one of the pictures, staring at the post for a second, sniffling heavily before attempting to turn the phone off, throwing it across the room onto a chair.

He didn’t realize his finger pressed against the _post_ button, or that he never switched accounts.

  


Peter woke up the next morning to May shaking him, her eyes wide with panic.

“Aun’ May?’ Wha’ is it?” He mumbled into the pillow, turning his head and blinking tiredly up at her.

“You need to come see this,” She never let go of his hand until they were standing in front of the TV, the local News channel was playing.

“Since last night, it’s been a manhunt throughout New York, hundreds people claiming they know the identity of the, now, unmasked Vigilante, but as of now, it’s been discovered and confirmed that our local and friendly Spiderman is in fact, a high schooler who somehow manages to balance homework on top of being a superhero-”

The rest of the words faded out into a vague ringing noise, his legs tripped as he stumbled backwards, running to his room. He ripped apart his bed, night table and the floor until he remembered he discarded his phone on the chair in the corner.

He was hyperventilating, his fingers hurt as he unlocked his phone in a rush, he had _thousands_ of notifications, ranging from comments, likes, missed phone calls and urgent, rushed texts.

His body froze as the phone rang again, Tony’s name lighting up the screen, but he dashed it away, opening up Instagram and going to the post.

It was a clear photo of his face, his actual face.

Peter held back a scream, the urge to destroy everything in his site pounded in his veins, but it was overpowered by the tears that started streaming down his face when he glanced at the comments.

 

_@Animedarkness99 ~ boyfriend?? You gotta be fucking kinding me of course hes a fag_

_@Poploc ~ i can’t believe this is what the worlds come to, being protected by melinial kids who think acting like a fag makes them cool_

_@Mariue ~ wow, talk about disappointment._

_@Laurani ~ great another kid who thinks he’s speical_

 

Peter heard knocking at the front door, he didn’t pay much attention to it though, his whole world was falling apart.

Aunt May sounded relieved by whoever was there, footsteps approached his room and he looked up, his breathing coming out harsh and shaky.

“I-I’m so-sorry.” Peter choked out between painful breaths, tears dripped down his neck and soaked into his shirt.

Ned gave him a small, reassuring smile, climbing onto the bed next to him, opening his arms and letting Peter fall into them.

“I-I...I ruined _e-everything,_ they all hate me and it-it’s all my fault.” Peter sobbed, clutching his boyfriend’s sweater tight enough to rip the fabric, but Ned didn’t seem to mind.

He wasn’t sure how long he was curled there, sobbing loudly, but by the time he pulled back, his eyes burned and he wanted to just go back to sleep and forget this all happened.

“Have you deleted the post?”

Peter shook his head.

“What’s the point, it’s on the News, deleting it isn’t going to change it…” Peter pulled his knees up, playing with his phone that was still almost constantly buzzing.

There was comments pouring in, the hateful ones stood out more, but that didn’t lessen the amount of _positive_ comments.

_@aani_iconic ~ i hope he’s bi so we can call him bider-man_

_@janetor ~ that whole rant like  #mood_

_@yo_wtf ~ we stan 1 baby spider, he’s just trying his best._

Ned kept scrolling through them, after taking the phone from Peter’s shaking hands. He read them outloud anytime he came across one that he thought might make Peter smile.

“And you’re a trending moment...on Twitter.” He said. “You’ve got a lot of support, even if it doesn’t seem like it.”

“I should probably,” Peter sniffled, rubbing his eyes with the back of his sleeve. “Make like a statement or something, it feels like something Mr. Stark would do.”

“Yeah,” Ned said softly, brushing his fingers through Peter’s hair. “But I think it can wait, at least a little bit.”

They started one of the Star Wars movies on Ned’s phone, Peter drifted off halfway through the beginning, his hands didn’t stop shaking until he was asleep, still clutching onto Ned’s sweater.

  
  
  



End file.
